The VP debate was sickening. Joe Biden did well. He’s a politician, he’s a decent enough guy. I disagree with him about a LOT of stuff – voted the wrong way on a ton of important issues (Iraq War, Bankruptcy and so forth) – but he’s a good decent middle of the road liberal Democrat. Fine.
Sarah Palin? What a disgrace. What an absolute blight upon the face of modern politics. A slap in the face to any kind of feminist awareness of women’s power and place in the modern political structure. Giggling, vamping, winking, fluttering around like a 15 year old mall-rat trying to get a good grade on an exam by fluffing up the dorky teacher.
I consider my self a progressive feminist: women should have equal pay for equal work, are an integral part of the political, economic, business, family, social and cultural fabric of every part of every society. Women should be accorded the same treatment and respect as every and any other person out there. There are many, many conservative republican women out there who, while I might detest them for their political views and actions, have orders of magnitude more credibility and cachet than this bubbleheaded loser. Women like Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Condoleezza Rice, Kay Bailey Hutchison, and so many others – they may be abhorrent politically, but hey – women have every right to be stupid and wrong as men, so why not, right?
On the Democratic side, we have women like Clinton, Sebelius, Granholm, Lee, and so many more across the spectrum from progressive to moderate to blue dog to whatever.
But Sarah Palin??
Like. Oh. My. Gawd. She is SUCH a loser. Like, duh!
The simpering, twittering, giggling little act she put on is either a) an act, in which case she is a manipulative, shallow, stupid woman hoping that her “moves” can overcome the fact that she is woefully ignorant about just about everything important; or b) it’s for real, in which case… ugh… in which case she needs some pretty serious re-education and waking up. But it’s probably too late.
John McCain picked her to be his VP candidate. Couple that pick with his “weird alpha male under threat from younger male” behavior at the debate, and what I think is happening is that McCain, whether consciously or unconsciously, is attempting to bolster his virility. He needs to show he’s the big swinging dick in town, the toughest, ballsiest, nastiest old silverback in the entire gorilla troop… sneer at and denigrate your opponent, compare him to girls and girly men, question his bravery, manhood and abilities on every front. Get the cutest little chicky-poo to hang on your every word, laugh at your jokes, and flirt with all the guys (while making it clear that HER man is the REAL maverick, tee hee tee hee).
Look, John, everybody knows about the mid-life crisis thingy. We’ve all seen it. Get a fast car (convertible, of course), dump the old wife, get a cute young thing to take to the parties, and puff up your self image by putting down all the other men around (whether they know what’s going on or not)…
But do you really have to do it now? On the national stage? What’s next? Are you going to down a vial of Viagra, chew it up dry, and hump the moderator in the next debate, to show you still got the juice, old man?
